By
Chaitra Sriram
May 20, 2008
“We are the only lawyers whose clients are all innocent,” read a sign at the “Animal Law: Working with the Grassroots” conference.
Photo by Cliff Despeaux.
Will Potter, a journalist and grassroots activist supporter, spoke at Friday’s “Animal Law: Working with the Grassroots” conference.
Photo by Cliff Despeaux.
Pamphlets and brochures adorn a table at the conference, which aimed to educate attorneys on how they can collaborate with animal rights activists.
Friday’s event brought together about 30 activists and lawyers to develop ways to further the cause of animal rights through their own lives and practices. The Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) hosted the conference at the Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library.
Animal law deals with the treatment of animals, whether they are pets, farm animals or wild animals.
Cases range from one in North Carolina about the first-ever cougar hunt, to cases of animal hoarding, where people kept too many animals in their homes and couldn’t feed or care for all of them, to cases about regulations for the keeping of farm animals.
Throughout the presentations, both the presenters and the audience displayed their passion and conviction about this issue. They talked with fervor about their mission to protect animal rights.
“There’s a whole lot to do when you consider the horrors,” said Adam Karp, of the Animal Law Offices of Adam P. Karp.
Protecting animals from those who would do them harm was also discussed.
“They are the least protected and the most innocent,” said Bruce Wagman, of the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
SALDF President Jennifer Kaplan explained that one of the goals of the conference was to start a dialogue between animal rights lawyers and grassroots activists.
The lawyers who attended expressed opinions that the law is not fair to animals. Their job, they said, and the purpose of the work they do, is to set a precedent to change that.
“The law doesn’t value them,” Karp said. “They’re invisible. And if you can’t be seen and you can’t be heard, then you have no rights.”
Most of the people in the room were optimistic. They believed their cause would ultimately win and quoted people like Gandhi, who said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
The attendees also believe there is already pressure from the community and the law will eventually reflect that.
“People are spending a lot of money on animal companions, and the law needs to catch up with that,” Karp said.
10 Comments
#1 etbmfa
on May 20, 2008 at 11:19 a.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
Animal Welfare or Animal Rights?
Here are some of the differences:
As animal welfare advocates. . .
• We seek to improve the treatment and well-being of animals.
• We support the humane treatment of animals that ensures comfort and freedom from unnecessary pain and suffering.
• We believe we have the right to "own" animals -- they are our property.
• We believe animal owners should provide loving care for the lifetime of their animals.
As animal rights activists. . .
• They seek to end the use and ownership of animals, including the keeping of pets.
• They believe that any use of an animal is exploitation so, not only must we stop using animals for food and clothing, but pet ownership must be outlawed as well.
• They want to obtain legal rights for animals as they believe that animals and humans are equal.
• They use false and unsubstantiated allegations of animal abuse to raise funds, attract media attention and bring supporters into the movement. (The Inhumane Crusade, Daniel T. Oliver)
WWW.naiaonline.org
#2 wlp
on May 20, 2008 at 1:37 p.m.(Seattle, WA | Unverified Name)
Kind of a slanted, biased post--wouldn't you say etbmfa? Readers, please don't take someone else's word for it...there is a wide range of nuanced and varying beliefs concerning animal welfare/animal rights- look into it yourself!
Don't accept broad generalizations as fact!
Animal rights activists do not seek the exact same sorts of rights for animals that (most) people currently enjoy; that would be impossible and ridiculous. Rights that are sought on behalf of animals are not based on the tragically simplistic belief that "animals and humans are equal". That is a kindergarten explanation of the vast and complex reasons and motives behind the animal rights movement.
And by the way, just to illustrate here- I myself fall on the animal welfare side of some arguments and on the animal rights side of other issues. Things are not black and white; on a well respected college campus that should be the first thing students learn.
#3 Rpt
on May 20, 2008 at 3:44 p.m.(Fort Worth, TX | Unverified Name)
wlp,
Perhaps you should look deeper into the agendas of both groups. Maybe read PETA's Mission statment, maybe do the very best thing you can and follow the money trail. it's not slanted by etbmfa; it's laid out so others can see the difference.
and Yes, Animal rights Activists DO believe animals should have the same exact rights as people (though Voting might cause problems)
the Phrase inalienable Human rights say Human for a reason. let's not forget that.
#4 MyOp
on May 21, 2008 at 1:49 a.m.(Philadelphia, PA | Unverified Name)
"etbmfa" (#1 above) is better known as Elizabeth Brinkley, an outspoken critic against ALL animal advocates and especially ANY canine legislation that would serve to better the health and welfare standards for dogs trapped in the large commercial breeding kennels (read: puppy mills).
The irony about Brinkley is that she has stated that people who purchase dogs from pet shops deserve what they get. Knowing that pet shops sell substandard dogs acquired primarily from puppy mills shouldn't translate into the breeding dogs having no decent health and welfare standards.
For someone who doesn't even hold a kennel license in PA she sure has an awful lot to say about things she knows nothing about.
#5 Elizabeth Brinkley
on November 13, 2008 at 10:34 p.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
I have never stated that people who buy from pet stores deserve what they get. Would love to know why someone I have never met in my life is quoting LIES about me. I am not against ALL laws and legislation simply those pushed by the AR terrorists who have a hidden agenda - NO PETS for anyone.
I don't need a "kennel license" to know dogs. I have 41 years experience working with dogs in shelters, vet clinics, grooming shops and boarding kennels as well as my own hobby kennel of show dogs. I have taught obedience classes since 1976 and finished multiple titles on dogs in both obedience and conformation.
#6 Elizabeth Brinkley
on November 13, 2008 at 10:36 p.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
As for PeTA see below:
7 Things You Didn’t Know About PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)Part 1
1) According to government documents, PETA employees have killed more than 19,200 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens since 1998. This behavior continues despite PETA’s moralizing about the “unethical” treatment of animals by farmers, scientists, restaurant owners, circuses, hunters, fishermen, zookeepers, and countless other Americans. PETA puts to death over 90 percent of the animals it accepts from members of the public who expect the group to make a reasonable attempt to find them adoptive homes. PETA holds absolutely no open-adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters, choosing instead to spend part of its $32 million annual income on a contract with a crematory service to periodically empty hundreds of animal bodies from its large walk-in freezer.
2 ) PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk has described her group’s overall goal as “total animal liberation.” This means the complete abolition of meat, milk, cheese, eggs, honey, zoos, aquariums, circuses, wool, leather, fur, silk, hunting, fishing, and pet ownership. In a 2003 profile of Newkirk in The New Yorker, author Michael Specter wrote that Newkirk has had at least one seeing-eye dog taken away from its blind owner. PETA is also against all medical research that requires the use of animals, including research aimed at curing AIDS and cancer.
3) PETA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. This includes a 2001 donation of $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an FBI-certified “domestic terrorist” group responsible for dozens of firebombs and death threats. During the 1990s, PETA paid $70,200 to Rodney Coronado, an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) serial arsonist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory. In his sentencing memorandum, a federal prosecutor implicated PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in that crime. PETA vegetarian campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich has also told an animal rights convention that “blowing stuff up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation,” adding, “Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”
#7 Elizabeth Brinkley
on November 13, 2008 at 10:36 p.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
As for PeTA see below:
7 Things You Didn’t Know About PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)Part Two
4) PETA activists regularly target children as young as six years old with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda, even waiting outside their schools to intercept them without notifying their parents. One piece of kid-targeted PETA literature tells small children: “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” PETA brags that its messages reach over 1.2 million minor children, including 30,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12, all contacted by e-mail without parental supervision. One PETA vice president told the Fox News Channel’s audience: “Our campaigns are always geared towards children, and they always will be.”
5) PETA’s president has said that “even if animal research resulted in acure for AIDS, we would be against it.” And PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, solely because they support animal-based research aimed at curing life-threatening diseases and birth defects. And PETA helped to start and manage a quasi-medical front group, the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, to attack medical research head-on.
6) PETA has compared Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust to farm animals and Jesus Christ to pigs. PETA’s religious campaigns include a website that claims—despite ample evidence to the contrary—that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian. PETA holds protests at houses of worship, even suing one church that tried to protect its members from Sunday-morning harassment. Its billboards taunt Christians with the message that hogs “died for their sins.” PETA insists, contrary to centuries of rabbinical teaching, that the Jewish ritual of kosher slaughter shouldn’t be allowed. And its infamous “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals.
7) PETA frequently looks the other way when its celebrity spokespersons don’t practice what it preaches. As gossip bloggers and Hollywood journalists have noted, Pamela Anderson’s Dodge Viper (auctioned to benefit PETA) had a “luxurious leather interior”; Jenna Jameson was photographed fishing, slurping oysters, and wearing a leather jacket just weeks after launching an anti-leather campaign for PETA; Morrissey got an official “okay” from PETA after eating at a steakhouse; Dita von Teese has written about her love of furs and foie gras; Steve-O built a career out of abusing small animals on film; the officially “anti-fur” Eva Mendes often wears fur anyway; and Charlize Theron’s celebrated October 2007 Vogue cover shoot featured several suede garments. In 2008, “Baby Phat” designer Kimora Lee Simmons became a PETA spokesmodel despite working with fur and leather, after making a $20,000 donation to the animal rights group.
Want evidence? Visit
www.AnimalScam.com • www.ActivistCash.com • www.PetaKillsAnimals.com
#8 Elizabeth Brinkley
on November 13, 2008 at 10:38 p.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
While we are at it - here's HSUS
7 Things You Didn’t Know About HSUS
(the Humane Society of the United States) Part One
1. The Humane Society of the United States(HSUS) is a “humane society” in name only, since it doesn’t operate a single pet shelter or pet adoption facility anywhere in the United States. During 2006, HSUS contributed only 4.2 percent of its budget to organizations that operate hands-on dog and cat shelters. In reality, HSUS is a wealthy animal-rights lobbying organization (the largest and richest on earth) that agitates for the same goals as PETA and other radical groups.
2. Beginning on the day of NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s2007 dog fighting indictment, HSUS raised money online with the false promise that it would “care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case.” The New York Times later reported that HSUS wasn’t caring for Vick’s dogs at all. And HSUS president Wayne Pacelle told the Times that his group recommended that government officials “put down” (that is, kill) the dogs rather than adopt them out to suitable homes. HSUS later quietly altered its Internet fundraising pitch.
3. HSUS’s senior management includes a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front(ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle hired John “J.P.” Goodwin in 1997, the same year Goodwin described himself as “spokesperson for the ALF” while he fielded media calls in the wake of an ALF arson attack at a California veal processing plant. In 1997, when asked by reporters for a reaction to an ALF arson fire at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah (which nearly killed a family sleeping on the premises), Goodwin replied, “We’re ecstatic.” That same year, Goodwin was arrested at a UC Davis protest celebrating the 10-year anniversary of an ALF arson at the university that caused $5 million in damage. And in 1998, Goodwin described himself publicly as a “former member of ALF.”
#9 Elizabeth Brinkley
on November 13, 2008 at 10:40 p.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
While we are at it - here's HSUS
7 Things You Didn’t Know About HSUS
(the Humane Society of the United States) Part Two 4.HSUS raised a reported $34 million in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, supposedly to help reunite lost pets with their owners. But comparatively little of that money was spent for its intended purpose. Louisiana’s Attorney General shuttered his 18-month-long investigation into where most of these millions went, shortly after HSUS announced its plan to contribute $600,000 toward the construction of an animal shelter on the grounds of a state prison. Public disclosures of the disposition of the $34 million in Katrina-related donations add up to less than $7 million. 5. After gathering undercover video footage of improper animal handling at a Chino, CA slaughterhouse during November of 2007, HSUS sat on its video evidence for three months, even refusing to share it with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. HSUS’s Dr. Michael Greger testified before Congress that the San Bernardino County (CA) District Attorney’s office asked the group “to hold on to the information while they completed their investigation.” But the District Attorney’s office quickly denied that account, even declaring that HSUS refused to make its undercover spy available to investigators if the USDA were present at those meetings. Ultimately, HSUS chose to release its video footage at a more politically opportune time, as it prepared to launch a livestock-related ballot campaign in California. Meanwhile, meat from the slaughterhouse continued to flow into the U.S. food supply for months. 6. According to a 2008 Los Angeles Times investigation, less than 12 percent of money raised for HSUS by California telemarketers actually ends up in HSUS’s bank account. The rest is kept by professional fundraisers. And if you exclude two campaigns run for HSUS by the “Build-a-Bear Workshop” retail chain, which consisted of the sale of surplus stuffed animals (not really “fundraising”), HSUS’s yield number shrinks to just 3 percent. Sadly, this appears typical. In 2004, HSUS ran a telemarketing campaign in Connecticut with fundraisers who promised to return a minimum of zero percent of the proceeds. The campaign raised over $1.4 million. Not only did absolutely none of that money go to HSUS, but the group paid $175,000 for the telemarketing work.
#10 Elizabeth Brinkley
on November 13, 2008 at 10:41 p.m.(Latrobe, PA | Unverified Name)
While we are at it - here's HSUS
7 Things You Didn’t Know About HSUS
(the Humane Society of the United States) Part Three
7. Research shows that HSUS’s heavily promoted U.S. “boycott” of Canadian seafood—announced in 2005 as a protest against Canada’s annual seal hunt—is a phony exercise in media manipulation. A 2006 investigation found that 78 percent of the restaurants and seafood distributors described by HSUS as “boycotters” weren’t participating at all. Nearly two-thirds of them told surveyors they were completely unaware HSUS was using their names in connection with an international boycott campaign. Canada’s federal government is on record about this deception, saying: “Some animal rights groups have been misleading the public for years … it’s no surprise at all that the richest of them would mislead the public with a phony seafood boycott.”
Want evidence? Visit www.AnimalScam.com • www.ActivistCash.com • www.consumerfreedom.com
Revised October 2008. Complete sources and documentation available upon request.
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